Pat Fish’s opinion: DNREC wants to take over Sussex County’s land

I’ve been to a couple of Sussex County Council meetings these past few weeks and have become concerned that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control — Delaware’s version of the federal Environmental Protection Agency — is attempting what could only be termed a huge takeover of private and public lands in Sussex County.

The agency, of course, claims it all to be for the greater good of Delaware, which desperately needs DNREC to take care of precious wetlands that private landowners are incapable of protecting.

This might not be an exact quote, but it’s the gist of it. DNREC already, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, has control over what is termed Type 3 and Type 2 wetlands. DNREC now seeks to take control of Type 1 wetlands, which somehow managed to survive all these years without DNREC.

Understand: This includes private lands. Imagine having to go through DNREC to cut down a tree. The estimate is that more than 50 percent of Sussex County’s land falls into the Type 1 category.

The Sussex County Council is pushing back on this notion — and rightfully so. DNREC promises financial incentives to compensate Type 1 wetland owners, and other grants; the bureaucracy makes it sound so simple, an easy route to beautiful wetlands by the divine hand of DNREC.

I heard a DNREC employee say the answer, as provided by none other than the EPA, is something called “higher density” housing.

This translates to crammed living, such as apartments, condominiums and townhomes. These are fine places to live for those who desire to live in them.

Higher-density housing works especially well on the shore or other waterfront, but that young DNREC employee declared that young people today strive to live in this sort of situation.

Kudos to Councilman George Cole for stopping this nonsense in its tracks. People in Sussex county do not want to live in those sorts of homes, nor do the young people who are relocating here.

Most Sussex Countians want a house with a small piece of land around it, Cole declared.

I think he’s right and hope to get out the word about how a huge Delaware bureaucracy wants to take over Sussex County.